The longest serving monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully yesterday, and the nation now enters a period of national mourning. Social media channels are filled with photos and fond dedications to The Queen for her dutiful and steadfast service. She was a well-loved figure and even non-royalists acknowledge that her death signifies the end of an era. As with any death, we will mourn the loss in our own way or not at all, depending on our relationship with our monarch.
What I find interesting is how a public period of national mourning is likely to impact the individual privately and how it may reignite feelings around personal loss, possibly returning people to a moment of grief they thought they had dealt with. Grief has a habit of not behaving itself and thank goodness it is now widely accepted that Kubler-Ross’s linear model of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) is far too neat to express the reality of our messy grieving emotions which, if they were lines look more like Mr Messy than a well-kempt one-way road.
As the mood of the nation drops, our mental health can take a bit of a bashing and we can feel out of kilter. Look out for yourself, your family and friends, your neighbour who lost their partner last year in case this national loss triggers a return to grief and a drop in mood and motivation. Let’s face it, even before yesterday these aren’t the easiest of times to process with positivity after reading the news. As individuals we might feel hopeless or unable to influence the wider economic and political situation but as a community, we can take back control by continuing to be good-hearted, kind people to one another.
Acupuncture offers an evidence-based approach to supporting you through your feelings of grief, sadness and low mood and is available right here in Moffat. I am an expert in treating stress, anxiety and trauma and have conducted research with people in the Grenfell Tower community who were experiencing trauma and loss after the tragic fire, who reported many benefits following acupuncture treatment.
Besides one-to-one treatments I offer a low-cost community stress clinic option to keep the service accessible to as many in the community as possible while sustaining a small business. Feel free to message me about this.
In the meantime I’ll be thinking of my Nana who died in February this year, also peacefully, at the age of 93. She was a huge fan of the Royal Family. She was our Queen.
RIP Her Majesty, the Queen.
